Myanmar: A Day In The Life Of A Cyclone Survivor

ByJonathan Dumont — 2 December 2009

Copyright: WFP/Jonathan Dumont

Copyright:

For people whose lives were wrecked last year by Cyclone Nargis, it can take a long time to pick up the pieces and start looking to the future. But 20-year-old Aye Aye Thin has managed. She's driving her community’s recovery forward by helping rebuild a key road. Watch video

YANGON – The village where Aye Aye Thin grew up was flattened when Cyclone Nargis swept through the Ayeyarwaddi Delta last year. After several moves over the last 18 months, she now lives with her mother and uncle in a camp for displaced people near Mwe Hauk village.

Aye Aye, who lost six family members in the cyclone, is keen to help her community get through the recovery phase so that she and her remaining relatives can concentrate on a better future.

To build this future, Aye Aye's village needs to be more accessible to the outside world. That's why she, along with many other WFP beneficiaries, is taking part in a project to rebuild a key road linking Mwe Hauk to the rest of the Ayeyarwaddy region. WFP is supporting her with food assistance while she works on the project.

Cyclone Nargis swept across southern Myanmar on the evening of 2 May, leaving a trail of death and destruction before tapering off the next day. The winds and tidal surge caused by the cyclone damaged much of the fertile Ayeyarwady delta, and Yangon, the nation's main city and former capital.

Whole villages were washed away and more than 140,000 people perished in the first 48 hours. More than 2.4 million people were left without homes, food or livelihoods by the cyclone.